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I'm not sure of anyone is working on a free unlock app/jiggy thing, but you can get an unlock code off ebay for £5; considering you can get the phone off the vodafone site for £100(£95 if you go thru quidco) it still works out as a pretty good deal for what its worth.

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more the principle. since those selling the codes presumably "stole" the keygen (?), someone should just steal the keygen from them and give it away. if that hasn't already happened.

I would think that if they stole the keygen then they would supply it instantly when you order it rather than having to wait between 12 & 24 hours. However, in reality I think they go direct to Huawei to get the unlock code.

As I said in another thread, its a bit unfair to accuse them of stealing with no evidence and just based on supposition.

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hmm. hadn't occured to me that Huawei may be be making some money on the side unlocking their own phones. interesting point (Vodaphone should want to stop this perhaps by holding the master key, or however the system works, and hoping no one at Huawei leaks it). i've never paid for an unlock so didn't know you had to wait.. still more likely that's just a processing time for sellers not to have to respond instantly day and night, maybe they do have a keygen!

Remember the Blade had an unlock website almost instantly? maybe G300 has harder algo to crack..

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just re-read and realised how ridiculous that sounds. no way is Huawei themselves, a large company, making money on this, but perhaps one of their employees is/are "on the side". "stolen" is probably the right word in the intellectual property sense, in the sense that these people probably shouldn't have the keygen, and are depriving companies of income, not that i care about Vodaphone, just saying how the law might see this?)

if anyone knows otherwise please say, i'm interested in how this works.

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So you are ok with depriving these companies of money or "stealing" their intellectual property if it doesn't cost you anything but not if it does as that seems to be the new stance. I'm interested in how this works

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just re-read and realised how ridiculous that sounds. no way is Huawei themselves, a large company, making money on this, but perhaps one of their employees is/are "on the side". "stolen" is probably the right word in the intellectual property sense, in the sense that these people probably shouldn't have the keygen, and are depriving companies of income, not that i care about Vodaphone, just saying how the law might see this?)

if anyone knows otherwise please say, i'm interested in how this works.

I still don't understand why you automatically assume they are acting illegally and are not obtaining the unlock codes via legitimate methods. Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'.

Also, I agree entirely with Pondlife's statement above.

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that's exactly right. if it's distributed for free, that's less morally wrong than having the wrong person (those who add no value) profit from it. whether companies, the original maker/seller, should profit at all from "features" like locking is questionable imho. i'd argue that if anyone is profiting from selling unlock codes, it should be in this case Vodaphone, since they provide the product and perhaps choose to subsidize it. similar issues to movie piracy etc.

what legitimate methods are there to obtain unlock codes? would like to know :) (not to sell!)

Edited June 12, 2012 by Smiff2

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Its very doubtful you will get a free unlock. The free blade unlock was great but the Guy who figured out how the code was generated was actually threatened with court proceedings as it was costing a phone unlock business in potential lost sales. Nothing came of it but if the unlocks were illegal or IP infringing, these unlock businesses would have been shut down by now.

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no, it's better that you pirate it yourself (in this case using a keygen yourself), than pay some dodgy blackmarket gang for it. that's my analogy and it's pretty sound within the movie piracy world, not sure how applicable to phones though because..

How do mobile unlocking businesses work? I don't know. that's all i'm wondering..

Davidoff, so it's normal now that new phone unlock algorithms are not broken (at all? for months?), and that you have to pay someone for an unlock code? genuine question. i don't really follow "phone scene" other when i'm buying one!

Surprised, as i assumed these things were regularly cracked, obviously security has got better in response to carrier demand.. shame! Also depressing that someone who reverse engineers a system (legitimately, not stolen) can be threatened legally. that's all kinds of wrong.

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If they were cracks then they would be leaked out and be downloadable on the bittorent sites.

Its very doubtful you will get a free unlock. The free blade unlock was great but the Guy who figured out how the code was generated was actually threatened with court proceedings as it was costing a phone unlock business in potential lost sales. Nothing came of it but if the unlocks were illegal or IP infringing, these unlock businesses would have been shut down by now.

It is telling that it was an unlocking company and NOT Orange or ZTE who were threatening prosecution. If the unlocking company was acting illegally then they wouldn't be daft enough to attract attention to themselves in this manner.

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i realize any crack would quickly be spread/turned into websites/etc. was asking in general about how things normally work with phone unlocking. So it's now considered normal to pay random 3rd parties on sites like ebay, who's source for these codes is unknown, to be able to use the device you bought? Come on, this is pretty weird.

look at OP's question.

Only upside for the consumer is it provides competition for the carrier.

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So it's now considered normal to pay random 3rd parties on sites like ebay, who's source for these codes is unknown, to be able to use the device you bought? Come on, this is pretty weird.

You could say that you don't know the source of ANY product you buy. However, you generally trust them unless you have good reason not to. Yes it is considered normal to pay for unlock codes and it is only random the first time you use a company. Personally I've got two G300's and I used the same unlock company both times so I would say that is no longer random.

You do not need an unlock code to be able to use the device you bought, it will work perfectly well on Vodafone. You only need an unlock code to use the device on a different carrier. Personally, I can't blame Vodafone for sim locking a PAYG phone. What exactly is weird about it.

look at OP's question.

I think that has already been answered but to reiterate, I doubt that there will be a free unlock generator.

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there's nothing weird about a carrier trying to restrict phones to their own networks. what's weird is that there's apparently this secret underworld of people with knowledge of unlock codes/generators, that are providing something that could be free, that consumers are happy to use. if i had a locked phone and used this, i'd feel ripped off. have you thought about asking for your money back? wonder how paypal would handle that :P

edit: it's also weird as i said before that Vodaphone sold me an unlocked phone AND sent me an unlock code AND didn't charge for unlocking, but i guess i'm just a jammy b*st*rd. if it worked for another phone or could be useful for cracking i'd give it away..

Edited June 13, 2012 by Smiff2

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was asking in general about how things normally work with phone unlocking. So it's now considered normal to pay random 3rd parties on sites like ebay, who's source for these codes is unknown, to be able to use the device you bought? Come on, this is pretty weird.

A very quick look on ebay would show you that yep it's pretty normal, before that it was normal to go to a 3rd party shop/market stall for it, and I'm guessing they got them ultimately from the same place but regardless you wouldn't know where it came from. There's a stall in the local undercover shopping centre which is currently about 20 yards from o2 and is often about the same distance from vodafone.

Why would you feel ripped off? They offer a service for a fee that's roughly 1/4 of the cost that vodafone have charged some people which admittedly that you got for free from them, now those people who paid £19.99 should feel ripped off by vodafone I'd accept..

The orange san diego is a more amusing case atm orange have taken a fee for unlock codes that didn't work and have said people will have to wait while they sort the problem out.

Edited June 13, 2012 by Pondlife

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As I and other members have posted on other threads Vodafone can and have unlocked the phones within minutes using their on screen facilities. i wasnt even a vodafone user at the time. there does appear to be an issue with consitency between vodafone shops on this with some charging £10 some £20 and quoting anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 days to complete.

i think once the exclusivity period is over vodafone will probably be more consistent in providing the unlock codes so they can at least get the unit sales up.

just my 2 pence worth.

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on the face of it, very impressive that a bunch of market traders have achieved better security of their IP than e.g. movie studios, and with something presumably much easier to replicate (a keygen is much smaller than a movie). Unless they are in collusion with the phone makers or someone close to them.. which has me wondering why carries haven't asked the government to investigate that. Doesn't add up, must be something here i'm missing. Perhaps just not enough money involved for anyone to care?